Is Mediation an Interdisciplinary Profession? Evidence from a National Mediator Registry

Although mediation has been promoted as an interdisciplinary alternative to litigation throughout Europe, few empirical studies examine who actually becomes a mediator. Because no probability sample of the profession exists in Lithuania or in most other jurisdictions, this study instead analyses the complete national registry of civil mediators in Lithuania (N = 664, accessed December 2025), which avoids the response-rate and self-selection problems that limit prior survey-based research on mediator populations. Professional background, gender, and practice characteristics (specialisation breadth, languages offered, and mediation types) were coded from the registry and examined descriptively and inferentially (chi-square tests, ANOVA/Kruskal–Wallis tests, and Spearman correlations). The findings reveal a double pattern: approximately 80% of registered mediators are women, and over 78% have a legal professional background. Comparable, though methodologically heterogeneous, information from the U.S., the Netherlands, the UK, and Germany suggests a wider variety of professional entry routes in those systems. Drawing on Abbott’s theory of professional jurisdiction, theories of occupational feminization, and a communicative perspective on mediation practice, this study argues that the Lithuanian pattern reflects institutional design rather than the interdisciplinary vision embedded in EU Directive 2008/52/EC—while also acknowledging that registry data can describe who is authorised to mediate but not who actually practices, and cannot by themselves establish the causal mechanisms behind the patterns observed. These findings carry implications for mediator training, quality assurance, the long-term viability of mediation as an interdisciplinary profession, and access to dispute resolution services.